Kozhukkatta lessons
This happened a couple of years ago.
I was just out of college, working in Pune then, and staying with a friend. One Sunday, I woke up quite early and sipping my morning tea was lazily surfing the web. My browser homepage was set to amritapuri.org and the “Thought for the moment” was something to the effect of “Even to lift a finger, one needs God’s grace”. “So I see”, I thought carelessly and went on..
Being a Sunday, I thought I’d prepare some kaara kozhukkataa ( savoury steamed rice balls had as a breakfast / snack in Tamil Nadu ).It would be a nice surprise for my friend who was still sleeping. It would also serve to flaunt my culinary skills, I thought! I googled up some cookery sites and found out the “authentic way” to prepare kozhukattais. Luckily, all the ingredients were at home, so I was all set to go.
Enthusiastically, I went on to Step1 – Prepare the dough.
With even more enthusiasm, Step 2 – Chop onions and chillies and fry them
Step 3 – Mix them into the kneaded dough – that I did.
By now, my friend had woken up to the tempting aroma of rice flour and fried onions and was all praises for me. And I felt rather elated.
Step 4 – Make small balls. They looked so deliciously cute.
Now, I suddenly had a naughty idea… to test the “Thought for the moment” I read earlier. Does Amma’s grace really need to be there to do this last step of steaming these balls? I have nothing to do here now. I will drop them into the pressure cooker to gently steam them and there they would be !
Step 5 – Steam the balls – I arranged them neatly into the steamer plate and placed them inside the cooker. I had checked the amount of water. Everything seemed perfect.
I closed the cooker with confidence and went on to switch on the TV to catch up with the latest box office hits. I will now have to wait for 5 minutes for my little kozhukattais to be ready to serve!!!
A shrill whistle of the cooker jolted me in a couple of minutes time… Oh no!!!!! I had forgotten to remove the stopper from the cooker lid… I sprang off the couch, dashed into the kitchen, quickly switched off the stove and desperately tried to get the pressure off by lifting the stopper… I opened the cooker to see my little to-be-kozhukkattas all in a mess of white paste..
It was disheartening, but suddenly the thought struck me. With the cooker lid still in hand, and disappointment in my face, I looked at Amma’s photograph in my kitchen – Her eyes seemed to have a naughty twinkle and I just burst out laughing…. My friend thought I was laughing at what had happened to my kozhukattaas.
A messy lesson indeed, but definitely well taught!!
– Anuradha
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😀
very funny!!!
and also thought provoking…
thanks 4 sharing with all of us…
amma is only jagadambe without her grace nothing is possible.
this is such a beautifully written experience …you made us burst into laughter too 🙂 coz Amma does this so so often with all of us doesnt She.. Amma is such a beautiful Krishna!!! 🙂
A great lesson always comes with a price, but with Amma around we learn them in a discount!
It’s amazing to see how Amma creates the right circumstance, with the right people involved and environment to actually make us learn, even though we are unaware of this!
Thanks for sharing. Keep writing such experiences! 🙂
Nice post… U wrote it beautifully…thanks for sharing this….
Great a lesson indeed
To stop and always pray,
Before we start every deed
For mistakes not to be a prey …
Hai Anu when i read this i remember a story which was narrated by my grandma when i was very very small. Once a husband i think he was an astrolger went to a house to see the horoscope and the host had given him tea and with the snack of Kozahkkatta. He liked it very much and thought that he should ask his wife to make the kozhakkata for him in his house. As soon as he returned from the customers house he forgot the name. He indicated the form and colour to his wife. The wife needed to know the name and got angry and they started quarrelling. In the quarrel the husband pushed the wife. She fell down and something like a ball came in her forehead. When the husband enquired about how she felt, she said: see how i hurt, like a kozhakkata. The husband with a great laughter exclaimed: It is Kozhakkatta!
There is a lesson to be learned in all of amma words and even in her glances. Every action she performs is a lesson on how to live our lives. Thank you so much for your story. It is through her grace that we can do all that we do for other and ourselves.
Beautifully narrated experience. Thank you so much for posting.
Amma Sharanam